


the color of a new sunrise

by joltik



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Middle-Aged Romance, Older Characters, Post-Black Eagles Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26612188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joltik/pseuds/joltik
Summary: Older Edelgard and Byleth, post-abdication, having an uneventful afternoon and dancing together in the sitting room of their cottage.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 7
Kudos: 72





	the color of a new sunrise

Byleth reclines on the sofa in the sitting room of their cottage, straining to try to sneak a look at Edelgard's canvas. It doesn't take long for Edelgard to notice, and she raps Byleth lightly on the knuckles with the end of her brush. "My love…" she says, her voice tinged with exasperation. "You know not to move while I'm painting you.

"I know," Byleth says. She's certainly modeled for her enough times, having long proven to be Edelgard's favorite subject. "I wanted to see your work."

"I'll show you when I'm done, as I always do. ...Assuming it turns out well."

“All of your paintings are good,” Byleth says.

“The ones I show you are...passable,” Edelgard says with a stern shake of her head.

“You should give your skills more credit.” Byleth says. “You’ve always been a good artist, and you’ve only gotten better with time and practice.”

“Be that as it may, I know when my work is subpar,” Edelgard says, in a voice that brooks no argument, so Byleth chooses to let the matter drop. She waits until Edelgard is deep in concentration to sneak a glance again, this time successfully. 

The painting is fully sketched out but some of the details are unfinished. What is finished is excellent work, however: she sees her own hair, a mix of blue and gray, the lines on her face around her eyes and mouth faithfully reproduced but her eyes still sharp, the blues and greens that will be the linen shirt and trousers that she put on this morning intending to garden… She considers complimenting her wife on her work, but she knows that would not be well received.

Having sated her curiosity, she resumes her role as a perfectly still model, whiling away her time with thoughts of what she’ll do after Edelgard finishes her work. She _does_ still need to take care of her garden, and she mentally files away which plants need to be planted, what needs watering or pruning, which plants she needs to check to make sure they’re still doing well...oh, but she should also cook lunch, and there were some tools she’s been meaning to repair…

An impulse pops into her head, and Byleth stands up, prompting a disgruntled cry of “Byleth!” from Edelgard. “Sorry,” she says, mostly genuinely, as she walks across the room. “I just thought, wouldn’t some music brighten the mood?” Byleth picks up the music box, a peculiar gift Petra had given Edelgard one year as a birthday present, and winds it up. It is of Brigid build, she believes, and it’s a small wooden box containing a metal mechanism composed of a cylinder covered in bumps, a metal comb that caught on the bumps when they passed through, and a mess of springs and gears to make all of it function. (One of the worst fights of their marriage was the result of Byleth taking the thing apart to try and figure out how it worked, and she had only narrowly been able to put it back together.) The song programmed into it is one from an old opera Dorothea used to sing, one that Edelgard had always been quite fond of.

The music begins to play, and as Byleth sits down again she sees Edelgard’s gaze soften. She attempts to get back into her original pose, but Edelgard pauses, setting down her brush. Byleth makes an inquisitive noise.

Edelgard gets up, crossing the room, and stands before her, hand outstretched. She’s as beautiful as ever, with her short chestnut brown hair with thin streaks of white just starting to come in again, her simple red dress, and the slight chubbiness to her frame. (She’d cut her hair short after her successful crest removal, when her original hair color started growing in once more, and she’d realized she liked it and kept it that way). “Darling,” she says, her voice bright. “Will you dance with me?”

“Of course,” Byleth says, taking her hand in hers. “That’s an offer I could never refuse, from you.”

Edelgard’s hand is warm in hers, as is the other hand where she places it on her shoulder as she leads. Ever graceful and full of poise, one step ahead of her, guiding her effortlessly. Step, step, glide, step. She’s in her element, and while these days she’s rarely completely free of pain, none of it shows in her movements. Edelgard dips her, and she feels a quiet thrill, for a brief moment feeling like they’re young again. 

Byleth hums along to the music as they dance, the lyrics echoing through her head.

> _I know not what the morn may bring  
>  I know not whe’er the birds will sing  
>  I long to keep you safe from harm  
>  To wake up daily in your arms  
>  But my one true desire  
>  Whate’er else may transpire  
>  Is to see reflected in your eyes  
>  The color of a new sunrise_

__

She had only seen the original opera once, with Edelgard. She hadn’t been able to follow the story very well, unfamiliar with the medium, but Dorothea’s performance was stunning and she had been enraptured, Edelgard holding her hand the whole time the way she holds it now.

__

Eventually, Byleth takes the lead, and while her lead is clumsy by comparison, Edelgard shows no complaint. She guides her in a wide circle around the room, twirling her gently and holding her close. At the end, Byleth lifts her up, moving slowly at first and watching her to make sure it’s okay, and Edelgard leans into her, her delighted laughter ringing through the room. Eventually, she sets her back on her feet, and they share a smile together as the music stops.

__

“Shall I go back to modeling?” Byleth asks, Edelgard’s hand still in hers.

__

Edelgard hums thoughtfully. “I think I am fatigued, now. I should go for a nap, I think.”

__

“The sofa’s all yours, if you would like it,” Byleth says, and Edelgard nods, squeezing her hand lightly.

__

Later, she brushes Edelgard’s hair out of her face as she watches her sleep. She did decide to sleep on the sofa, even though the room is bright from the midday sun streaming in through the windows.

__

It’s hard to say how much strain Edelgard’s crests had on her body, before one of them could be removed. Hard to say how many years she has left—how much time the two of them would have together. Then again, Byleth has her own old war injuries that could come for their reckoning, and one or both of them could become sick...anything could happen, such is time, but they’d live life as they always have, taking one day at a time and enjoying each moment that they could.

__

**Author's Note:**

> I am a notoriously slow writer...except when I am caught by a sudden burst of inspiration and can't stop until I'm done. Oops. I guess this is accidentally my belated birthday fic for Byleth. (As for my now super-belated Edelgard birthday fic, that should hopefully be up sometime this week...I wanted to get it up by Byleth's birthday, after aiming for...Edelgard's actual birthday in June and my own birthday in August and missing those, but I didn't quite make it. That one...is much less SFW, though.)
> 
> I wrote the lyrics myself, so my apologies if they're bad...poetry is not my strong suit, lol.


End file.
